Leach Announces Legislation for Pennsylvania to Join National Popular Vote Compact

HARRISBURG – State Senator Daylin Leach (D-Montgomery/Delaware) has sent a co-sponsorship memo to his Senate colleagues announcing that he will introduce legislation that will result in Pennsylvania joining theNational Popular Vote Compact.

The compact is an agreement between states pledging to award their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote in presidential elections.

The agreement takes effect once states representing a total of 270 electoral votes join the compact. After that point, future presidential elections would be awarded to the person who receives the most votes from the American people.

The Electoral College awards at least three electoral votes to each state and Washington, D.C. More votes are awarded to each state based on its population.

This system renders the votes of people living in more populous states less valuable than those of people living in less populous states.

The founders created the Electoral College because they did not trust the people to make a wise selection. Once political parties came into existence, each party began binding their electors to voting for their specific nominee—no matter what. The system no longer works in service of its original purpose, according to a news release from Leach’s office.

“In the heart of every American you’ll find an instinctive commitment to the principle of one person, one vote. Despite that, our country elects its leader using a convoluted and unfair process that values the votes of some over the votes of others. It’s time for Pennsylvania to do the right thing, the fair thing, the democratic thing.”

One thought on “Leach Announces Legislation for Pennsylvania to Join National Popular Vote Compact”

Rather than just a popular vote count, why not a count that does not give all the state’s electoral votes to the winner but, rather split them up by the percentage of votes that go to each candidate. One candidate gets 51% of the state’s votes, they only get 51% of the electoral votes?

While we are at it, let’s make sure each person registering to vote IS in fact a US citizen and actually has the right to vote in elections.